The school year is here which means most of our fun outings are relegated to the weekends.  I love taking the family on outings and celebrating the seasons. 

This time of year we are all about pumpkin and apple picking, Boo at the Zoo, Haunted walks, etc. In the winter its the holiday lights shows, ice sculptures, winter wonderlands and more. 

There is always so much to do in our everyday life, that planning these kinds of outings can be hard. How do you find the time to research events, schedule them, invite friends and family and go?

The following are the methods I use to get fun outings on the calendar so we can make the most of our weekends. 

The Idea

Most weekends I love to go out with the family. The idea of just sitting home with 3 kiddos when we could be playing outside or exploring is just not fun.

Don't get me wrong, there are some days when staying home and building a block city is the perfect way to spend the day.  But most weekend I like to have at least 1 outing. 

Waiting til the day of just doesn't work for me. I need to wake up knowing the plan for the day or else getting the kids out the door will be rough. So, the next steps are what I do to have a plan ahead of time. 

Use the Local Paper

First off I get the delivery of the local newspaper. To be honest, I may or may not actually read the articles.  Instead, once a week, I look at local events section as well as the ads for any local events. 

I take my planner and on the month at a glance page, I write in all of the events that my family might want to go to. This means like age appropriate and doesn't conflict with any other set in stone plans. 

Check Facebook Events

Next, I do the same thing with Facebook events. I check any of the events that I was "interested" in during the week and put the on the same calendar. 

I'll also check if there are any other fun local events that might be fun that hadn't happened to make their way across my news feed. 

Once I'm done with this, I have a calendar filled with lots of fun events that we may or may not go to. 

Discuss With the Family

Once I have all the possibilities on the calendar, I talk with the hubs about what we want to do.  Since my kids are young, they may or may not be involved with this conversation.  As they get older, they are becoming more and more involved. 

We talk about which things are must dos and which are nice to dos. I highlight the ones we really want to do so we make sure those happen. 

Now when we wake up and feel like getting out of the house, we have a whole list of local things to do.  All of them are fun and age appropriate and perfect for our family.

When adding the activities to your calendar, make sure you write the full name of the event and times. Firstly, because you may have multiple possible events for one day so you'll want to know when each one is.

Second, you are not going to be able to fit all the details of each event.  Luckily, most events, even the ones you found in the paper, have info on them online.  If you have he proper name of the event you can generally look it up online for the details.

Another thing you can do is have a little code for showing where you found each event whether it be the paper or Facebook or a flier or something else. That way you know what to refer back to if you plan to actually attend the event.  

Going through the paper and Facebook each week looking for events takes maybe 10 minutes. Then you can do a quick "do we want to do any of these events discussion" with the family.  It's a great conversation for family dinner that everyone will be interested in.  

I know my kids are way more excited to get ready in the morning when they know we have fun plans, so get them involved in the decision.  

What activities do you have plans for this fall?  Let me know in the comments!

Cheers,

Emily